Machi
Machi is one of the 3 female members of the Phantom Troupe, a gang of thieves with class A bounties Vol 1, p.52. Appearance Machi is one of the few Phantom Troupe members who prefer to wear Japanese-style clothing. She looks like a modern day female ninja. Her usual outfit consists of spandex shorts, a short-sleeved uwagi, an obi worn around her waist and an obijime tied over it, a pair of fingerless gloves, tabi boots or socks with zōri, and leg warmers that cover from the ankles up to her knees. She has pink mid-back hair that is usually tied into an updo. In the 1999 anime adaptation her hair is indigo. Personality Machi is one of the coldest members in the Phantom Troupe, but not quite as emo as Feitan. She is quick-witted and always appears to be calm. Hisoka seems to have high regard for both Machi and her abilities but she only considers him a nuisance at best. She has sharp intuition, which has always turned out to be true and therefore is trusted by some of her comrades such as Nobunaga and Chrollo. Machi is incredibly loyal to Chrollo and has stated that she would hunt Hisoka down if he were to kill Chrollo. Background Not much is known about Machi, except that she, along with Chrollo Lucilfer, Feitan, Franklin, Nobunaga, Pakunoda, Phinks, Shalnark and Uvogin, is one of the 9 founding members of the Phantom Troupe, who were all abandoned by their parents and grew up in Meteor City2004 Databook, p.133. Because of her aura threads, she is responsible for tracking the enemies and treating the other members when they are wounded2004 Databook, p.109. Plot Heavens Arena arc Machi makes her first appearance right after the fight between Hisoka and Kastro in the Heavens Arena in April 2000, waiting for the former in a locker-room tunnelVol 7, p.7. She reattaches both of his severed arms using her Nen threads, charges him 70 million Jenny in total for that, then leaves after giving him the message that all members of the Phantom Troupe will have to be in Yorknew City by August 30thVol 7, p.22. Yorknew City arc, Part 1 On August 31st, Machi is seen again together with Franklin, Nobunaga, and Feitan on the outskirts of Yorknew. Later, at the meeting of the Troupe in a run-down, abandoned area of the city in the morning of September 1st2004 Databook, p.181, Chrollo tells her and the other members that they are going to steal all the auction items of the Mafia's underground auction that is going to take place in the evening. At around 9 p.m., Machi and 6 other members disguise themselves as the Mafia, infiltrate into the auction room and kill all the mafiosi and guests but the auction items were already removed from the vault several hours before by Owl of the Shadow Beasts. They then fly to the Gordeau Desert on a balloon with the Mafia being hot on their heels. Chrollo tells them by phone to cause a disturbance to lure out the Shadow Beasts. Thus, Machi and her comrades decide to land in the desert to confront the Mafia. After landing, she and the others stand to one side and watch Uvogin single-handedly massacring a large number of mafiosi and 4 Shadow Beasts. When Uvogin is captured by Kurapika she immediately sticks a needle with a Nen thread put through it in his clothes to keep track of himVol 9, p.66 then chases after Kurapika in a car with 4 other members. Just before they can catch up with him, the remaining Shadow Beasts arrive and stop them. Machi and her teammates kill all of these Shadow Beasts with ease except for Owl, who they capture and torture to get the auction items. Near midnight, by intercepting the Mafia's phone calls, they find out Uvogin is being held captive in a building of the Nostrade family. Machi and 4 members of the Troupe then come to the building in the Mafia's disguise and free him after killing DalzolleneVol 9, p.97-98. In the early hours of September 2nd, Machi tells Uvogin about the items and the demise of the Shadow Beasts, but he insists on finding the chain user--Kurapika--to get revenge instead of returning to their hideout. She and other members have no choice but to let he do what he wants. Thanks to the help of Shalnark, in the evening of September 2nd, Uvogin eventually finds Kurapika in a hotel room in Yorknew, but he is killed by him not long afterward in a duel in the Gordeau Desert. On September 3rd, because Uvogin has not returned, Machi and Nobunaga pose as a couple in a plaza hoping to lure Kurapika out, but they are tailed by Gon and Killua instead. With the help of Phinks and Pakunoda, who have been secretly following them, they easily capture the kids and bring them back to their hideoutVol 10, p.146-149. In the evening, she, Chrollo and 9 other members attack the Cemetery Building again to avenge Uvo, slaughtering around 2,000 mafiosiVol 11, p.88 and some professional assassins. Because Illumi Zoldyck, hired by Chrollo, assassinates the Ten Dons, they manage to avoid casualties. Following the Dons' deaths, Kortopi creates fake corpses of 6 of them, including MachiVol 11, p.145, to make the Mafia loosen their guard. They proceed to counterfeit the items and sell all the copies in the rescheduled auction right afterward. When it is over, they return to their hideout and celebrate victoryVol 11, p.161. Yorknew City arc, Part 2 In the afternoon of September 4th, in the Troupe's hideout, Nobunaga insists that they keep pursuing Kurapika instead of leaving Yorknew. Knowing it is impossible to dissuade him, Chrollo uses Neon's ability to tell the fortunes of Nobunaga and some other members. According to his predictions, 5 more of them will die if they meet the chain user in the following week. Nobunaga thus agrees with Chrollo that they should return to Meteor City to avoid that scenarioVol 12, p.14-15. However Hisoka alters his own predictions with the Texture Surprise and manipulates the whole group into staying in Yorknew City so that he can have a chance to fight ChrolloVol 12, p.42-45. Later, Chrollo deduces that Kurapika is one of Neon's bodyguards, and thanks to a pair of fake Scarlet Eyes that they sold him the night before, they know that he and the other bodyguards are staying in Hotel Beitacle, 2.5 km from the hideoutVol 12, p.86. Chrollo orders Kortopi, Machi, Nobunaga, Pakunoda and Shizuku to go with him to the hotel. On the way, he notices that they are being followed by 2 people so he tells Kortopi, Nobunaga and Pakunoda to go ahead while he, Machi and Shizuku stay behind. They then capture Gon and Killua againVol 12, p.114-115. At the same time, Pakunoda and the other two capture Squala. After she finds out Kurapika's identity by reading his mind, Nobunaga cuts his head offVol 12, p.125. Chrollo, Machi and Shizuku take the 2 kids to the hotel and meet up with Pakunoda's group in the hall. He tells Paku to check their memories again, which she does with ease. However, before she can reveal what she has learned about Kurapika, a power outage planned beforehand by Kurapika and Leorio suddenly happens, allowing Gon and Killua to break free from her grasp and attack her and Machi. Machi quickly recaptures Killua despite the total darkness and some broken ribs while Nobunaga catches GonVol 12, p.149-150. However, when the light has come back on, they realize that Chrollo has been captured by Kurapika. Phinks, Feitan and Shalnark soon arrive in the hotel. They then receive a call from Kurapika, who tells them not to follow him, not to hurt the hostages and to hand Paku the phone. He next tells Paku to arrive at Lingon Airport alone before 8 p.m. to negotiate the terms of a hostage exchange and the other members to return to their hideout. Phinks, Feitan and Shalnark try to follow Paku, but Nobunaga blocks them for fear that Chrollo will be killed, leading to a heated quarrel between Nobunaga and Phinks, which only stops after Shizuku knocks Nobunaga unconsciousVol 12, p.181. Because Machi and Shizuku agree with Nobunaga, and Kurapika has warned them that Melody is capable of detecting lies, they grudgingly return to their hideout as told by him. Paku then comes back and tells them about the conditions, which involve her going to the exchange location alone by midnight with the kidsVol 13, p.33. Hearing that, Phinks gets so angry he wants to get rid of the kids then go after Kurapika but Machi disagrees with him. She, Paku and Kortopi almost get into a fight with Phinks and FeitanVol 13, p.38, who thinks that they are being manipulated, before the quarrel is interrupted by Gon. Phinks finally lets Paku go after Franklin tells them that if they do not calm down the worst betrayal of Chrollo--the death of the Spider--will happen, and that if Chrollo never returns they will only need to kill the manipulated members and revive the Phantom TroupeVol 13, p.42-43. Machi agrees with him, but adds that she is not being controlled and will not be killed easily. After Pakunoda returns to the hideout without Chrollo and the kids, Machi is one of the 6 founding members she transfers her memories to before being killed by Kurapika's Judgement ChainVol 13, p.61-62. Knowing that they cannot pursue and kill Kurapika as long as the Judgement Chain is still tied around Chrollo's heart, they stay in Yorknew to wait for Chrollo, who has left the city for the East in search of an ExorcistVol 13, p.80-81. Greed Island arc On September 6th, Phinks and Feitan steal a copy of the game Greed Island from Southernpiece auction house and bring it back to the hideout. Machi and other members are invited to play with them but they declineVol 13, p.119. Later, after Shalnark has discovered that Greed Island is an island in the real world and that there is an Exorcist on the islandVol 14, p.112-113Vol 15, p.158-159, she enters the game with the other members to search for this person. They meet Hisoka and are forced to cooperate with him because Chrollo himself has asked Hisoka to find an Exorcist for himVol 15, p.160-161. When the Troupe has located the Exorcist, Abengane, Machi is asked by Hisoka what she will do if he defeats and kills Chrollo after Kurapika's aura chain has been removed from his body. She responds that Chrollo will never lose to him, but if that were to happen, she would hunt him down and kill him, demonstrating her fierce loyalty to ChrolloVol 17, p.115. Hisoka says he would like that, in a playful and somewhat flirtatious manner. Abilities Nen Machi is a Transmuter. She is capable of creating threads which can be lengthened almost without limit and can only be seen by using Gyo out of her aura. These threads can be used to sew open wounds and even to completely reattach severed limbs in a short time. She can also set up traps with them to capture or strangle the enemies. While Machi is not a Manipulator, the threads allow her to control her targets' basic movements with considerable accuracy like a puppeteer. The tensile strength of a thread is inversely proportional to its length. While an aura thread the length of the Earth's circumference, 40,800 km, is only as strong as a cotton thread, an aura thread that is no more than 1 m in length can support a ton. However, if a thread gets separated from Machi, its strength decreases significantly because it is very difficult for Conjurers and Transmuters to project their aurasVol 9, p.82. Machi reattaching Hisoka's arm with her threads.jpg|Reattaching a severed arm with Nen threads Machi hanging Bean to death.jpg|Hanging Bean to death with a thread Machi controlling corpses with her threads.jpg|Controlling corpses like a puppeteer with Nen threads Others *'Muscle control': Machi seems to have excellent control over her muscles as she could tighten them to the point that Killua could not retract his hand after he stabbed her in the chest. *'Sharp intuition': Machi has incredibly accurate hunches, which have never been wrong and thus are trusted by her companions. Trivia *In the 1999 anime adaptation, Machi also comes and watches the fight between Hisoka and GonEp 42 (1999). *She ranks 6th in the Phantom Troupe in arm wrestlingVol 10, p.26. *In the second character popularity poll for Hunter × Hunter, Machi took 7th place with 544 votes *In the third character popularity poll for Hunter × Hunter, Machi took 12th place with 282 votes *Machi is the only woman Hisoka has seemingly shown romantic interest in, asking her to stay with him for the night at one point. * In her debut episode, as she examines and treats Hisoka's injuries, camera shutter sounds can be heard as she blinks while examining the wounds, implying photographic memory. This could be the reason she is so accurate when it comes to treating injuries. References }} HitCounter Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Nen users Category:Transmuters Category:Phantom Troupe Category:Greed Island players